Battle of the 300 Champions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (April 2007)

The Battle of the 300 Champions was a battle fought in roughly 545 BC between Argos and Sparta. Rather than commit full armies both sides agreed to pitting 300 of their best men against each other. After a bloody battle only three men remained, two Argives and one Spartan. The Argives claimed that because of numerical superiority they had won the battle and returned home. The lone Spartan, however, declared victory for Sparta since he was the last soldier to maintain his proper post on the battlefield and constructed a victory shrine for Sparta. Argos did not take too kindly to this and sent their entire hoplite army which was met by a Spartan force of equal magnitude. The Spartans won a decisive victory and as a result gained control of Thyreatis.

Years later, in 420 BC during a lull in the Peloponnesian War, Argos challenged Sparta to a rematch of the Battle of The 300 Champions. Sparta declined.